Spiritual calligraphy

Even as a child I was fascinated by written characters. They seemed to me like sacred symbols long before I knew what they meant. Later, as a student in Heidelberg, I practiced Japanese and Chinese calligraphy with the Zen monk Hoon Kenmyo, every day. In Japan this practice is called shodō 書道, the way of writing. In Shingon Buddhism, writing sacred characters even becomes a ritual, and this is exactly where one important root of the Reiki symbols lies. That's what this article is about.

Shodō, the way of writing 書道

I still remember my first lesson with Hoon Kenmyo well. He handed me his own brush, and I had the feeling that it wasn't my hand guiding the brush but the brush guiding my hand. That may sound strange, but it's my experience, and it has shaped how I understand writing ever since.

In the Japanese tradition, the state of the person writing can't be separated from the character they write. An angry person writes differently from a calm one, and if you look at calligraphy for a while, you can see it. It's a bit like hearing from someone's voice how they're doing, even when they're saying something completely ordinary.

Calligraphy as ritual in Shingon 修法

In Shingon Buddhism, writing takes on an additional meaning. When a monk writes the Siddham syllable (Bonji in Japanese) a on a talisman, for example, he does it within a ritual framework, with hand gesture, mantra and inner visualization. These are the three mysteries (sanmitsu 三密) of body, speech and mind, and all three are involved while he writes.

In other words, Shingon assumes that the power in a character isn't just depicted but placed into it through ritual writing. This has a long history. Daoism already knew the art of making talismans (fu 符), and this art was taken into esoteric Buddhism very early on.

The Reiki symbols as calligraphy 靈符

This is where we come back to Reiki. The four Reiki symbols Cho Ku Rei, Sei He Ki, Hon Sha Ze Shō Nen and Dai Kō Myō come from the East Asian writing tradition. Sei He Ki is a Siddham seed syllable, Hon Sha Ze Shō Nen and Dai Kō Myō are made of kanji, and Cho Ku Rei isn't a written character at all. Their roots lie in esoteric Buddhism, in Shugendō, in Shintō and in Daoism.

Many people know the Reiki symbols mainly as images you draw in the air. From a Japanese point of view, though, drawing a symbol is writing, and so what I said about the state of the person writing applies here too. In my chapters in the big book on the Reiki symbols I described this as writing with ki. How the symbols are written and used belongs in the initiation, because that's where it's passed on in the right context.

Ofuda, talismans from temples and shrines 御札

At Japanese temples and shrines you can get ofuda 御札, talismans of paper or wood on which a monk or priest has written sacred characters. Many people put them on a small altar at home, for protection, for good fortune or as a connection to the being of light they stand for. In Shingon temples, many ofuda carry Siddham characters.

To Japanese eyes, an ofuda is therefore more than a printed piece of paper. It comes out of a ritual, and people treat it with respect. When it has served its time after a year, you take it back to the temple or shrine, where it's burned in a ritual.

Calligraphy in Shingon Reiki 実践

Once you've written with brush and ink, you quickly notice how different it is from drawing in the air. The paper soaks up the ink immediately, and you can't correct a stroke once it's down. That trains your presence a great deal, without you having to think about it. By the way, I wrote the calligraphy of the Usui life principles myself.

How calligraphy of the symbols and the Siddham is practiced in Shingon Reiki belongs in the initiations, the live events and the community. You'll find more on the Siddham script in the article on Siddham calligraphy. Have you ever written with brush and ink yourself?